How would you feel if you went to a job interview and after a few minutes the hiring manager says, “It was great speaking with you, but we already have someone of your race working here.” Ouch, right? That’s how New York City based model Deddeh Howard feels and that’s the inspiration behind her “Black Mirror” project [8].
Last week, the model appeared on Good Morning America to talk about the project where she has recreated well-known luxury advertising campaigns in order to show what they would look like with a black model. The high quality images and powerful message have only been on her website for three days and have already gotten the attention of the media and many social media users.
Her photographer Raffael Dickreuter [9] has also taken recent photos of her acting as a black female Iron Man. Howard has stated that her goal is to fight for more diversity, especially when it comes to seeing more people of color on billboards, movies, TV commercials, and advertisements. “Not too long ago it happened to me that I would walk into various fashion model agencies and I would immediately be compared to that one or two black models that they had on the roster,” according to Howard’s website. “Even though I was told by those agencies that I have an amazing look and wish they could represent me, they already have a black model.”
